


The Show Must Go On

by lankree



Series: Season 3 Rewrite: Snapshots [2]
Category: Glee
Genre: Canon Rewrite, F/M, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2012-11-13
Updated: 2012-11-13
Packaged: 2017-11-18 13:48:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,392
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/561726
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lankree/pseuds/lankree
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Rachel's arc in the Season Three rewrite.</p><p>Rachel forces Finn to enter a “Short Term Cooperative Agreement” (which everyone else refers to as a Love Contract) to ensure their relationship stays on course for Senior Year. She deliberately designed it to navigate them through all the foreseeable obstacles in their relationship…</p><p>It provides absolutely no guidance for the totally unfathomable whirlwind of crazy Rachel descends into when her dads decide to have another baby. Finn, having only experience getting awesome new siblings, is ill-equipped to comfort Rachel… so he sends (read: blackmails) Kurt to help.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Show Must Go On

Rachel sat at Finn’s desk, half hearing Finn talk and completely not listening. They really didn’t spend a lot of time at Finn’s house, but when they did, Rachel monopolized the internet connection. Since the train wreck extravaganza, Finn had become an expert in hiding his web history, so he was much more comfortable with Rachel being on his computer. He really didn’t have anything to worry about, because nothing in his search history was even close to the web addresses Rachel typically frequented: Julliard  and Stella Adler. He had seen Rachel on two occasions sit for hours without blinking as she stared through performance videos. Finn could see another coming along, so he did the only thing he could think of to distract her from plotting her future with him in the negligible background.

 Finn reached beside his bed and pulled out his guitar.

 

**Hey there Delilah what's it like in New York City  
**

Rachel’s head picked up immediately.

 **I'm a thousand miles away**  
But girl tonight you look so pretty, yes you do  
Times Square can't shine as bright as you, I swear it's true  
  
Hey there Delilah, I've got so much left to say  
If every simple song I wrote to you  
Would take your breath away, I'd write it all  
Even more in love with me you'd fall, we'd have it all  


 **Oh it's what you do to me**  
Oh it's what you do to me  
Oh it's what you do to me  
Oh it's what you do to me  
What you do to me  
  


Finn could see that Rachel was appropriately hypnotized. He put his hands and voice on autopilot, letting him think about what he has doing and why.

_I’m not gonna lie, this is really weird. My girlfriend’s name is Rachel and I’m singing a song about a girl named Delilah and normally that would throw any girl into world of crazy I’d never want to visit, but I have to risk it. Rachel’s been really far away since we came back from Nationals. The only way I can get her to look at me the way she used to is to serenade her with songs about New York or at least contain the words New York. Luckily there are a lot of them; Frank Sinatra made a career off of them… I just need them to keep my girlfriend in love with me. I really want this year to be my best ever – having Rachel, winning another football championship, and taking Nationals this year are my huge goals this year… oh and getting into a good state college. That last one would be awesome._

  
**A thousand miles seems pretty far**  
But they've got planes and trains and cars  
I'd walk to you if I had no other way  
Our friends would all make fun of us  
And we'll just laugh along because we know  
That none of them have felt this way  
  


Looking in her eyes, it was obvious to him why he loved her. She was beautiful, usually had the best of intentions (though pretty terrible judgment), and dreamed bigger than her body. That must sound easy because she was tiny, but Finn knew that Rachel was going places and was glad to hold onto her for as long as she let him.

 ****  
Delilah I can promise you  
That by the time that we get through  
The world will never ever be the same  
And you're to blame  
  


Rachel was smiling. Finn totally felt he was winning the war for Rachel’s attention. Finn finished the last few chords before putting his guitar down.

“That was lovely, Finn.” Rachel said.

Finn smiled back. Rachel picked up her bag and promptly stood. “I need to use the bathroom.”

She was out the room before Finn had time to react.

Rachel let out a sigh after she closed the door behind her. _That was a lie._ She thought. _Well, not a complete lie. I do need a mirror to check my make-up, but there’s no way I’m going to use the one in Finn’s bathroom. I need Kurt’s cosmetic kit, which he’d totally understand and appreciate me using… it also provides me with a valid excuse for entering his room without previously being invited… skin quality trumps social protocol every time with Kurt._

Rachel pushed open the door to Kurt’s room without knocking. She doesn’t know what she was expecting, but it definitely wasn’t Kurt sitting on his floor, giving Blaine a hickey on his neck.

Rachel gasped, noting that Kurt had heard her enter, but hadn’t moved his head from Blaine’s neck. “What are you doing?”

Blaine smiled with all of his teeth. “He’s giving me a hickey.”

Kurt pulled back then, looking his boyfriend in the face, clearly displeased. “It’s not a hickey. It’s an epic love poem written on your neck in a very tiny space with my tongue.”

Blaine crinkled his nose, enjoying Kurt’s playful mood. “I know, you’ve been signing your name for the last two minutes.”

Rachel smiled. “That’s what Noah does to Zizes.”

Kurt rolled his eyes. “And you’ve ruined necking for me. Way to go.”

Rachel looked appropriately admonished. “Sorry”

Blaine stood up quickly. “I’m gonna go look at this in the mirror. It’s my first hickey! Sorry, epic skin poem.”

Rachel and Kurt watched the excited teen prance into Kurt’s bathroom, making full use of Kurt’s cosmetic mirror. Kurt turned a finely-shaped raised eyebrow to Rachel. “What do you want? I hope it’s not another chance to audition for **_Pip, Pip, Hurray_** , because I already told you that while your vocal prowess is stunning, you’re not fabulous enough to be Pippa, Princess Kate or Posh Spice. Princess Eugenie is still available.”

 “The one with the ridiculous hat?” Rachel nearly squealed.

 Kurt rolled his eyes. “They’re called fascinators and the fact you didn’t know that shows me you’re just not ready for my masterpiece.”

 “Whatever… I need to talk to you… It’s Finn.” Rachel pushed out.

 “It’s always about Finn… I can’t believe you chased off my boyfriend to talk about yours.” Kurt said, standing up.

 Rachel took a few steps inside. Kurt rarely let anyone into his room. Rachel always assumed it was subject to vampire protocol--if you weren’t invited, you weren’t allowed in--and always half expected to be expelled violently from the room at Kurt’s whim.

 “I don’t know why that’s so unbelievable,” Rachel finally said, “that sounds exactly like something I’d do. But that’s not important. I need you to look over this to make sure it's sneak proof.”

 Rachel reached into her bag and pulled out a spiral bound document, approximately eighty pages in length. Kurt extended a hand to take it, reading the title as Blaine returned to the main room, his shirt was still unbuttoned, clearly proud of Kurt’s penmanship.

 “What's that?” Blaine asked.

 “A Short-Term Cooperative Agreement?” Kurt read. The document was heavy and outside of the first two pages, was loaded with text.

 Rachel nodded, gripping the strap of her bag like a lifeline. “I’ve decided to protect myself from the pain and eventual emotional devastation that will come from permanently terminating my torrid high school love affair with Finn. While the pain will allow me to access a deeper talent that will translate into four Emmy’s, sixteen Grammy’s, three Oscars and two Tony’s…”

 Blaine nodded his approval.  “Ambitious.”

 Kurt raised an eyebrow. “That’s one more of each than Barbra Streisand has won…”

 Rachel plowed through, ignoring Kurt’s skepticism. “I’m worried about Finn. I mean I love him so I need to protect him.”

 “From your love?”

 Rachel nodded vigorously, stepping closer to Kurt’s bed. She’d never touched one-thousand thread count sheets; she realized the drama of the moment justified her using every luxurious prop at her disposal. “Yes. Our star-crossed love is one for the ages, like Romeo and Juliet, Jack and Rose, Kelly Kapowski and Zack Morris. They’ll write songs about it.”

 “Who is they?”

 “Kurt, focus. Can you read the contract and see if I missed anything? I laid out all the expectations for maintaining a relationship for the full course of the school year: all the roles and responsibilities and rights I have to terminate the relationship should Finn violate any of them.”

 Kurt became aware of how close Rachel was to sitting on his bed. He did not want. “Didn’t Finn terminate your relationship both times you broke up?”

 Rachel paused in her decent to his bed, her frustration stronger than her curiosity. “You’re no help. I need to find someone with a clearly established relationship with an unequal power balance.”

 Kurt smirked. “Zizes doesn’t come back from wrestling camp until Thursday.”

 “Drat.” Rachel’s hair flapped gracefully as she stormed out the room.

 Blaine smiled, shaking his head at Kurt and Rachel’s antics. “It must be hard being Rachel.”

 “I’d say it’s harder being in relationship with Rachel. Can you believe this?” Kurt fingered through the heavy document.

 “It’s completely unbelievable.” Blaine responded.

 Kurt dropped the tome on his desk, knowing Rachel would be back for it later, but determined to give it a quick markup before giving it back. He was nothing if not helpful. Kurt smiled at Blaine, letting his fingers trace the hickey he had given him. “We don’t need a Short-Term Cooperative Agreement, do we, Blaine?”

 “Of course not, beautiful. We’re so endgame.”

 

\----

 

 

Finn’s face couldn’t mask his confusion.

 “Rachel, I don’t understand.”

 “Which part?”

 “I think all of it.” Finn admitted.

 They were in Finn’s room again, having not seen each other since Monday. Normally they both would have taken issue with that, but Rachel had been plotting and Finn had been dominating in Mario Kart so neither of them had reason to complain. Finn was fanning through the Kurt Hummel edited “Short Term Cooperative Agreement”.  There were clauses and sections and sub-sections and what he called sub-sub-sections, but knew there was a real term for them.

 “Look Finn, we both want our senior year to be amazing. I created this document to insure that happens.”

 “But a Love Contract?”

 “It’s not a Love Contract. That sounds dirty.”

 It hadn’t been lost on Finn during his initial skim that the section entitled sex contained only one clause: reading simply “No.” with a small addendum that Rachel would continue to be a part of the celibacy club because it was important to her and that she had only quit one club in her entire high school career, two would show a lack of stick-to-itiveness and that just wouldn’t due if she really wanted to get into Julliard…

 Which she totally did.

 “I’m supposed to do all these things to keep you from dumping me?”

 “Finn, don’t think about it as preventing me from terminating our relationship, think of it as a guarantee that when we win Nationals it will be as the New Directions power couple. Isn’t that what you want?”

 “Of course… but it should be easier than having a Love Contract. The section on our dates is thirty pages long and includes how much I have to tip and how much flirting I can do with the waitress to get free refills…”

 “If it’s anything other than none, it’s a typo.”

 Finn frowned and placed the document back on his desk. He didn’t like where this was going, at all. Rachel could see his discomfort with what was happening. She put her hand on his lap and made sure she had his eyes.

 “Don’t let yourself get bogged down in the details. I’ll help you through it if you get confused.”

 “I’m already confused, Rachel. You think we need this? I mean, you love me and I love you… isn’t that enough?”

 “We loved each other in junior year and we spent half of it apart. I don’t want to do that again. This will help both of us, Finn. We only have this last year to be together. I don’t want to waste it if we come to something ambiguous like what color suit you wear to Prom or proper response protocol if another young ingénue joins Glee with her eyes on you and my mantle as lead.”

 “That’s not going to happen this year.”

 “I’ve deleted all the Lima crack houses from my Google maps, I can’t send any more of them away.” Rachel responded.

 “No, I mean, nothing is going to come between us. I promise. No girl, no guy.”

 Rachel handed Finn a pen. “Then sign. I’ll sign too and we don’t have to worry about it anymore.”

 Finn flipped the contract to the last page and signed it. Rachel punctuated her signature with a gold star, turning to smile at Finn.

 “What now?” Finn asked.

 “I need to tell you something. Something that will change our lives and our relationship forever.”

 “Should I read the contract first or have you already book marked it for how I should help you?”

 “You can quickly peruse Article 3: Supporting My Ego while I prepare myself for unleashing this devastating news upon you.” Rachel took a deep breath, mentally preparing herself for the physical undertaking that revealing her secret to Finn would do to her.

 Finn wasted no time in flipping the document open, though he knew intuitively that he wouldn’t be able to read anything helpful before Rachel told him how he was supposed to respond.

 “Finn, my… dads… are going to have another baby.”

 Finn’s face lit up at the announcement. “That’s awesome!”

 Rachel’s horrified expression told him immediately that he had really, really needed to read his Love Contracts before he signed them.

 

\--- 

 

Kurt had barely shut down his computer when Finn barged into his room. There were a series of things wrong with that particular situation, but the most obvious of those was Finn’s distress.

 “Finn, what’s wrong?”

 “Rachel. It’s Rachel.”

 “What about Rachel?” Kurt asked, still concerned but no longer worried.

 “She’s mad at me and I think she’s going to break up with me.”

 And suddenly the thing most wrong with the situation was Finn’s sheer inability to not be in Kurt’s room.

 “So, it’s Tuesday again, already? Well, thanks for the alarm, but my Jonas Brother’s calendar works just fine.”

 Finn’s brow furrowed. “You have a Jonas Brothers calendar?”

 Kurt rolled his eyes before standing up and started shooing Finn out of his room.  “I did, but it was inane, so I threw it out, much like I’m doing you.”

 Finn was large and difficult to move. Kurt was not pleased. He folded his arms over his stripped frock covered chest.

 “Come on, Kurt. We’re brothers; brothers help each other out with girl issues.”

 “Finn, do you really think I’m the person to ask about girlfriend problems? The only girlfriend I’ve had was Brittany, which puts my experience on par with every person at McKinley…”

 Finn would not be deterred. “But you’re super cool with the girls. You’re an honorary member of the XX chromosome league.”

 Kurt’s elegant brown arched toward his hairline with inquisition. “Finn, how do you know about the league?”

 Finn shrugged. “Santana has like, zero volume control during your slumber parties. The guys asked me to spy on the last one and I didn’t have to do anything.”

 “And we’re officially having sleepovers in Lima Heights from now on.” Kurt made another attempt at forcibly exiting Finn from his room.

 “Wait, wait, wait. That doesn’t help my problem.”

 Kurt gave up on pushing his larger brother out of his room. He dusted off his sleeve, feeling particularly boss.”I can’t help you, Finn. I’ve got 99 problems, but Rachel Berry’s romantic crazy isn’t one.”

 “Please, bro. I’d help you with your Blaine problems.” Finn pleaded desperately.

 “But my Blaine problems would be reasonable. Because Blaine and I are reasonable people… we don’t create love contracts and we don’t enter relationships with people who create love contracts.”

 Finn huffed, turning his body to watch Kurt move to gather a few magazines and replace them on his desk. “Yeah, I’m sure Blaine was totally reasonable about Sebastian having a crush on you when you told him that he tried to kiss you.”

 This was not met with a pithy rejoinder.

 It was met with capital S silence.

 Finn’s face lit up with stunned realization. “You haven’t told him! You’re keeping secrets! You’re just as bad as me! You’re a hypnotist!”

 Kurt rolled his eyes, caught between shame for being caught and sheer disbelief in Finn’s lack of understanding of how the English language worked. “It’s a hypocrite and I’m not. I plan to tell him. He’s just really stressed out with Sebastian trying to steal his senior spot light. He doesn’t need me piling on said young hot antagonist flirtin’ with his man, right now.”

 Finn nodded his head and smiled. “But until you tell him… you’re going to need to prevent me from telling him.”

 Kurt tilted his head. “Finn Hudmel, are you blackmailing me?”

 Finn’s smile broadened. “You’re impressed, aren’t you?”

 “I feel like a pageant mom: I shouldn’t feel proud about this, but I really do.”

 --- 

 

Instead of waiting patiently for Blaine’s text on how auditions went, Kurt drove to Rachel’s house and forced himself, first, into her bedroom then, second, into her closet. He started from the left hand side, pulling out aesthetically offensive articles of clothing and leaving the passable items.

 It goes without saying that most of Rachel’s wardrobe was finding a new home on her floor. Rachel herself sat on her bed, patiently waiting for Kurt to tell her why he was there and why now of all times was he destroying her esteem when any previous point in history would have been better. Eventually, after Kurt shuddered upon discovering her lederhosen, she realized that Kurt was perfectly willing to spend his afternoon throwing out her clothes in silence.

 “I guess Finn told you what happened.” Rachel finally said.

 Kurt made a non-committing sound. He evaluated a blouse before reaching back into the discard pile for a t-shirt and layering the contrasting styles on top of each other. He turned the new ensemble to Rachel’s attention. “These can only be worn together from now on. You’ll consult me on what color of Bermuda short to wear with it.”

 “I don’t own shorts.” Rachel responded.

 Kurt gave an exasperated sigh before tossing the newly made creation into the discard pile. He turned his attention to Rachel. “And no, Finn didn’t tell me why I’m here exactly, only that the two of you and your quote unquote relationship have problems that apparently only I can solve…”

 “It’s not my fault Finn doesn’t understand.” Rachel responded.

 “Understanding isn’t Finn’s strong suit, but we let him eat at the table to real people anyways… You knew before this latest tiff that this was Finn’s flaw. It can’t be a surprise and you know you have your own flaws. I even my own flaws. Blaine can't wear orange.”

 Rachel busied herself in arranging the necklaces on her nightstand, hoping to hide most of them from Kurt’s discarding mood. “How is that your flaw?”

“I don't always call him on it, I've allowed myself to be seen with him wearing orange twice and I didn't shame him publicly. That's what love does to people. We traverse the peaks and trenches of being in a relationship.” Kurt thinks to sit down on the pile of clothes he’s sentenced to donation. It was certainly high enough.  
  
“While my relationship with Finn is currently in a trench, the climb we have to take to will make the peak even more impressive.”

“So you don’t intend to break up with him?”

“Maybe? He was being really insensitive, but it really wasn’t his fault because he had no experience in this sort of thing, and the Short Term Cooperative Agreement doesn’t lay out how he’s supposed to respond in this situation because even I didn’t see this travesty coming about, but as a three time Rachel Berry boyfriend he should understand how I think, but then again I’m so emotionally deep that it would be difficult for him to navigate my emotional landscape…”

“You're going somewhere other than crazy town with this I hope?” Kurt interrupted.

Rachel huffed. Kurt **_was_** the right person to talk to this about... even if he was being snippy. “My problem with Finn has close to nothing to do with Finn and has everything to do with my brother...”

Kurt’s eyebrow ticked. “Brother?”

“Or sister, I don't know. I don't know if there's going to be one or more… What if they're boy-girl quadruplets that are masters of Jazz-Tap and put on stunningly synchronized choreography that could be achieved by twin-telepathy?”

“You know that's not a real thing right? Also that you don't have siblings.”

“My dads are thinking about it...”

Kurt flopped gracefully onto the clothes pile on the floor. He clapped his hands excitedly. “Rachel, that's amazing! You said you wanted siblings. It really came across in that song you wrote...”

“You read ‘Only Child’?”

“Finn told me you wrote a song about headbands and I thought it might be a good inspiration for ‘The Fascinating Fascinators of England’ in the second act of **Pip Pip Hurray**! and I may or may not have read every line of it... “

“What did you think?” Rachel asked sheepishly.

“It wasn't a good song, but it was honest...”

“I have to admit... the idea of siblings is very different than actually having them in your life... stealing your thunder.”

“Rachel, I can wax poetic about how unique your particular thunder is and how no one will ever take that from you, but I've been doing a cleanse that’s draining me so it’s really difficult to sympathize with other people's problems... and I just don't want to.” Rachel frowned, Kurt pressed on. “Change is hard; it was hard getting the Hudsons into my life after it had been just my dad and me for so long. Those two have no appreciation for coriander.”

The reason Rachel had endured Kurt’s criticism of her clothing and the risk of him actually going through with giving them to goodwill was because of this moment. Kurt would be the only person who understood what this meant. Rachel turned her body to face Kurt. It was so rarely she got to look down at him. “But when your mom died, your dad didn't think to immediately replace her.”

Kurt’s brows pinched together, giving her a look reserved for the terminally stupid.  “You do see how those things are opposite right? And it’s not about replacing you. Things will change but not the way your parents feel about you.”

“Nothing changed when the star quarterback became your big brother?” Rachel asked.

"No. There's generally less food in the house and all what Finn calls ‘the good stuff’ is stocked on higher shelves to keep me from getting to them as if I've never heard of a step ladder... but Carole and Finn have been great additions to the Hummel clan.”

 Rachel folded then unfolded her arms. “You call her Carole.”

“That's her name.” Kurt responded. 

“Not mom.” Rachel clarified.

“My mom's name is Penny.” Kurt responded.

Rachel leaped up then, taking a large stride toward the still seated Kurt. “See?!” She shouted expectantly. “That's what I mean! Right there! The divide exists!”

Kurt stood up then. He took special effort to dust the back of his pants thoroughly. He knew his clothes couldn’t catch bad taste, but it was not worth the risk. “The ‘divide’ exists because I have memories of my mom and they're great. That's why, not because I don't love Carole dearly. Finn and Carole never met the first Mrs. Hummel so I keep her in our lives to make up for it. And your siblings, no matter how many there are will never know what it’s like not to have an amazingly talented and caring big sister to look up to. They'll have to look up to you, for the first two years they're guaranteed to be shorter than you... after that... who knows.”

Rachel wasn’t pacified. She knew she was being silly, but she couldn’t help feeling what she felt. Her feelings had always been deep and irrational, but they were hers and she would always cling to them. Even in her smallest voice.  “What if they don't appreciate the arts?” She asked honestly.

Kurt tried not to roll his eyes, but he knew the effort would cause him to pass out. “Rachel, you have a monument to Sutton Foster in your bathroom.”

"Just the downstairs one, my bathroom is lined with in cast promotions of Priscilla Queen of the Damned and Chicago. My dads' alternate between Oliver Stone's Alexander screen grabs and Titanic.” Seeing Kurt’s confused face, Rachel plowed through with an explanation. “Historically my dad's have had difficulty processing Indian cuisine; they keep their bathrooms like that so their gas pains aren't the only disasters in the room.”

 “And we’ve hit the last stop on the TMI train, so I think it’s time for me to get off.”

 “Wait,” Rachel took a step toward Kurt, blocking him from her door. “You didn’t really help me.”

“I wasn’t trying to help you, I was trying to help Finn, but your particular brand of extra strength crazy is beyond my skills.”

 Rachel pouted, truly disappointed that Kurt was giving up on her.

 “Rachel… If your dads are anything like my dad, then being dads is the best thing that ever happened to them. They thrive on it. You want your dads to be happy, right?”

 “Of course I do, Kurt. I love them.”

 “I know you do. And you know that they love you too… so much that they’re willing to risk striking gold a second time with you…” Kurt paused, he was trying to help, but could see that Rachel really needed him; somehow this was the crisis of the end of her childhood. “Rachel, you can say what very few children of gay adults can say… your dads love you so much that they want to give you additional players in the story of your life. Think of any siblings that come into your life as understudies... tiny, inherently less talented understudies... “

Rachel smiled. “Thank you for saying they'd be less talented than me. I really appreciate it.”

Kurt smiled.  “Rachel, regardless of who is in the wings hoping you actually break a leg, you're the star in your life... and the show must go on.”

Kurt gripped Rachel by the shoulders and sat her down in front of her vanity. He found the hair brush she sang into when feeling melancholy, but optimistic, careful not to confuse it with her Bette Midler tribute brush or her awakening sexual liberation brush. Rachel looked back at him in confusion.

“I’m not going anywhere, Rachel. Go ahead and sing your song.”

Rachel took a deep breath, looking back into her mirror. With one hand firmly around her makeshift microphone, she leaned over to her cassette player and pressed play.

The dramatic strings lead in the supporting drums and chimes. Everything but the music faded behind Rachel. If nothing else, she always had music.

**Empty spaces - what are we living for?**  
Abandoned places - I guess we know the score..  
On and on!  
Does anybody know what we are looking for?  
  
Another hero - another mindless crime.  
Behind the curtain, in the pantomime.  
Hold the line!  
Does anybody want to take it anymore?  
The Show must go on!  
The Show must go on!  
Inside my heart is breaking,  
My make-up may be flaking,  
But my smile, still, stays on!  
  


Rachel no longer saw herself in her room. She saw herself watching her dads, preparing to add another Berry to the family tree. She saw how happy they were and it broke her heart… not because she wasn’t there, but because she couldn’t see herself happy for them.

**Whatever happens, I'll leave it all to chance.**  
Another heartache - another failed romance.  
On and on...  
Does anybody know what we are living for?

Rachel’s head shot up when she heard Kurt’s voice join hers. Normally she hated sneak attack duets, but they did sound great together.

 ****  
I guess I’m learning  
I must be warmer now…  
I'll soon be turning, round the corner now.  
Outside the dawn is breaking,  
But inside in the dark I'm aching to be free!  
  
The Show must go on!  
The Show must go on!  
Inside my heart is breaking!  
My make-up may be flaking...  
But my smile, still, stays on!  
  
Kurt dropped a hand onto Rachel’s shoulder, just before she stood up and felt her soul engulf the song and she took the solo back, feeling a relief she hadn’t felt since her dads had told her the news.

 ****  
My soul is painted like the wings of butterflies,  
Fairy tales of yesterday, will grow but never die,  
I can fly, my friends!  
  


Rachel could see it then. She could see her with her dads looking through the adoption materials. She could see them being happy planning the rest of their lives as a four piece or more.

 ****  
The Show must go on!  
The Show must go on!  
I'll face it with a grin!  
I'm never giving in!  
On with the show!  
  


 **I'll top the bill!**  
I'll overkill!  
I have to find the will to carry on!  
On with the,  
On with the show!  
  


Kurt crossed his legs at the knee, dropping his arms into his lap. He could feel it. He could feel Rachel’s heart change with the music. He had expected a medley of Carrie Underwood, recordings from Oklahoma and the application of the Bette Midler brush before Rachel pulled herself out of her funk.

**  
The Show must go on.**

 

Rachel pulled herself back from the song. She was smiling and crying, a mix of the tears she always shed when she sang and a pleasant addition of the mature tears that came with growing up. She dabbed them away before turning back to her friend.

“Thanks, Kurt. I really needed that.”

Kurt smiled. “You’re welcome, Rachel. I take it I can tell Finn that he still has a girlfriend?”

Rachel smiled. “Yes, you can tell your brother that he’s very lucky to have you and that he should study pages 18 through 37 in the agreement for proper use of third party intervention. You’re actually second on the list of approved go-betweens…”

“Uh-huh…” Before Kurt could put a ribbon on the important life lesson he had gifted to Rachel, his phone buzzed.

It was Blaine.

Kurt’s stomach fell out after he realized he’d missed several texts from Blaine. The news wasn’t good.

**_The reign is over… there’s a new Warbler King… don’t want to talk about it._ **

Kurt pouted. Rachel frowned.

“Something wrong, Kurt?” She asked.

“It’s Blaine… he didn’t get the solo… I need to console him. Can I borrow your Survivor Song brush? I feel like Blaine’s going to want to sing it out in between binges of strawberry cheesecake ice cream and reruns of the Wizards of Waverly Place.” Kurt pulled his bag to his shoulder. “I’m in for a night of torture.”

“I suggest you lead with the Scandals incident, pitch it in there like a joke and let him work out his frustration on upstarts making moves on what’s his.”

Kurt paused in his exit. His body didn’t turn when he swiveled his head to address her. “You knew about Sebastian almost kissing me?”

Rachel nodded and smiled, clearly proud of herself. “Finn told me. He’s terrible at keeping secrets.”

“But you managed to?”

“You’re not the only one who looks out for the well being of other people’s relationships.” She returned with a toothy smile.

Kurt shook his head and exited. Rachel sat down on her bed, barely having a moment to spread her hand over her comforter before Kurt returned to her room.

“Just in case you were wondering, I’m serious.” He said, pointing to the pile of clothes on the floor. “Either goodwill or a children’s charity, but they’ve got to go… but not to a blind kids’ charity… that’s just cruel.”

Kurt was barely out of the room for a second time before Rachel peeled backwards with laughter.


End file.
